Dispelling the 'Gospel of Darkness': Anti caste Radicals' Views on Education.
A presentation by V. Geetha
"Each class managed to transmit to its members the way of doing things it was traditionally engaged in doing. ... Education was domestic. Education was practical. It only increased the skill to do a particular thing. It did not lead to new perceptions. It did not widen horizon, with the result that the practical education taught him only an isolated and uniform way of acting so that in a changing environment the skill turned out to be gross ineptitude."
- Dr Ambedkar, Philosophy of Hinduism, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches, Volume 4, p. 42.
In this remarkable essay, among other things, Dr Ambedkar offers a dire critique of education in pre-modern India. This critique drew from his understanding of education as central to the making of what he termed 'associational life' and the everyday practice of democracy. This is also what led him to distinguish skill and active competence from a philosophical world view, which, he held, was to be had, in and through a general education that fostered literacy and enabled a critical grasp of the world. He also argued that given that only those authorised to study the Vedas could avail of this literacy - the ability to read and write - it remained out of reach for vast sections of the population. A 'gospel of darkness', he held, had come to be, which could only be dispelled by formal public education.
In my presentation I engage with these ideas, through a discussion of particular visions of education, advanced by anti-caste radicals in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in the sub continent, many of whom were active in the educational worlds of late colonial India, in one way or another.
A presentation by V. Geetha
"Each class managed to transmit to its members the way of doing things it was traditionally engaged in doing. ... Education was domestic. Education was practical. It only increased the skill to do a particular thing. It did not lead to new perceptions. It did not widen horizon, with the result that the practical education taught him only an isolated and uniform way of acting so that in a changing environment the skill turned out to be gross ineptitude."
- Dr Ambedkar, Philosophy of Hinduism, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches, Volume 4, p. 42.
In this remarkable essay, among other things, Dr Ambedkar offers a dire critique of education in pre-modern India. This critique drew from his understanding of education as central to the making of what he termed 'associational life' and the everyday practice of democracy. This is also what led him to distinguish skill and active competence from a philosophical world view, which, he held, was to be had, in and through a general education that fostered literacy and enabled a critical grasp of the world. He also argued that given that only those authorised to study the Vedas could avail of this literacy - the ability to read and write - it remained out of reach for vast sections of the population. A 'gospel of darkness', he held, had come to be, which could only be dispelled by formal public education.
In my presentation I engage with these ideas, through a discussion of particular visions of education, advanced by anti-caste radicals in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in the sub continent, many of whom were active in the educational worlds of late colonial India, in one way or another.